Marc's Public Blog

Getting there from the east side of Paris takes a while since it's quite a ways out by mid range train and it just happens that during those days there was another strike, so there were a lot fewer trains, thankfully getting there worked out in the morning (on the way back, after missing a train, getting uber back was expensive, but way faster):

10mn walk from the RER station

Visiting the main palace wasn't too terribly busy:

the most famous room

Ironically while the Versailles gardens are way better in the summmer, I actually prefered the palace in the Louvre. The gardens are huge but not as impressive in the winter when most things are dead. A 20mn walk way is the Trianon, other quarters away from the main palace, not as impressive to visit:

And that was it for Versailles. It still took a good 5H to visit between getting tickets, going through the gardens and visting the somewhat skipable Trianon residences. It was fun, but soemeone short on time can appreciate the royal rooms inside the Louvre, just as much, if not even more.

ridiculous line already

all this to go through the security gate which I guess wasn't there before

Eventually got in and had aroud 9H to see most everything, still a lot but manageable if you're efficient. This time I started with the underground ruins of the castle that used to be in the place of the museum:

before

after

really cool that they only found this semi-recently when digging for extra galleries

Lots more to see:

Then was time for the main museum, lots of rooms:

the audioguide wsa quite cool, based on a nintendo 3DS with geolocation

quite cool

I never take selfies :)

found my fellow leo :)

unexpected statue :)

Paintings came next:

the room with Mona Lisa was packed with people trying to take selfies

for this

all these people

More rooms still:

inside joke :)

The King/Castle section of the Louvre is better than Versailles in my opinion:

And more to see still, by then the day was getting a bit late, got to see almost everything before they started closing around 21:30:

and we eventually got kicked out

Nice to finish with a night shot:

France still isn't too PG yet, nicely done :)

even a representation of mycelium, nice...

I was happy when I guessed tardigrade

fruit flies...

Cheese mites (they also had dust mites)

bacteria

CV19, even

and the worst STI, a baby :)

This was lovely light expo, super well done....

fun restaurant across the street with tables in ski gondola cabins

The next evening, I spent a bit of time in Paris and walked around to see the lights and Xmas houses before seeing a show that was a cross between circus and a play:

A few days later, went to Paris again to meet some school friends for lunch:

plenty of random nice churches, popped in a few on the way

small cars are always fun :)

Great to see Rani, Laurent and Franck

went back out to see a few lights

cool Xmas houses, always fun to see

The next day, I went out during the day for more sightseeing staring with the center of Paris:

Then, going back to the Panthéon felt like a good idea, especially since it was going to rain. The building has fascinating history. Sure enough, there was a long line to get in too and no online tickets for that day. I had to get creative again to get in:

the underground crypt is quite interesting and houses lots of famous people

Marie Curie is properly recognized for the brilliant scientist she was

Back to the 1st arrondissement to enjoy lights and Xmas houses:

yummy but ridiculously overpriced nougat

lime scooters despite hard to find or park legally, came in handy

Another lime ride to the Jardin des Plantes for the night illuminations (click for pictures):

The next day, given the somewhat ok weather, it felt like a good idea to go to Sacré Coeur:

one of the 2 above ground subway lines

all the locks removed around the seine river are now ending up here?

after 'a few' stairs :)

funny that the streets around are still open to cars somehow

I tried a drawing for the first time

Interesting smile-smirk :)

Back to 1er arrondissement, the seed and plant store is always fun to see:

Conciergerie was next, lots of history in that building that used to be a jail during the kings and french revolution. It also contains documents from the first republic (yes, France has 5 republics and constitutions, so that it's in better shape than the US whose constitution is hard to update for current times):

very cool sand structures

the video guide was interesting and showed views of how the place used to be

Sainte Chapelle is a beautiful churh but very hard to get into due to its location in the palace of Justice

Then a quick trip to les jardins du louvre et l'arc de triomphe du carousel:

The nearby festivities had the big ferris wheel with great views, and another Xmas fair:

arrived just in time for sunset

nice views

I went with the seared foie gras burger :)

more overpriced nougat

yes, I went for a bumper car ride, those don't suck and have proper power

L'obelisque was not very far, so it was a good next stop leading to Champs Elysées:

It was fun to climb l'arc de triomphe again:

l'arche de la défense in the background

The next day was friday, which has late hours at the Louvre, so good day to visit (click for details). This was indeed an open to close until 21:30:

After that was Dec 31st with dinner plans that evening, so it was a good day to see Versailles:

while changing RER, you have to cross the seine on foot, and the orthodox church happened to be open

first time I got in, in so many years, although it doesn't look like much inside :)

The rest of the day was spent at Versailles (click me for more):

After NYE dinner with my dad, I figured it would be fun to do NYE in the middle of Paris, something I hadn't done in 22 years, but the dinner ran late and by the time I got to the subway it was packed and it was clear it would be impossible to get to Effeil tower, so I aborted and got out around République:

I was able to find the last lime bike available and barely get it by reserving it with my phone before someone else was able to snatch it, and biked like crazy to get to Obelisque just in time, literally down to the minute. A bit too close for comfort, but it worked out:

plaee was packed of course, champs elysées was actually shut down because it was full

I then tried to complete my plan to get to Effeil tower, which was done by lime bike again since the whole city was gridlocked. Even biking was hard due to the number of pedestrians everywhere and all streets blocked with cars all stuck. But I made it:

The following day was a good day to see les grands magasins boulevard hausman and Google:

Thankfully it was a nice day for a change, good time to go to the eiffel tower:

I tried Batobus, not the best viewing but easy to get on and off

After getting off the boat, a semi random walk to see some sights:

another random church on the way

This interesting bit is the biggest piece of the wall that used to be around Paris:

And ending at Place des Voges with interesting art as always:

And that was the end of a good trip:

The flight home was nice until we failed to land in SFO due to terrible weather:

so we had to land in Sacramento

after a multiple hour stop in Sacramento, finally landed in SFO

I got 2 flights for the price of one:

But once in SFO, the torrential rain had not stopped and caused a landslide on hwy 280 with fallen trees in the middle of the freeway, so it took a while to get home:

cool restaurant with tables in ski cabins

The second night we went to see a circus show inside of a play, interesting mix, with another nice dinner after:

Back at home, in the too much shit I carry when I get around, I got to use special bandaids and medical superglue to fix my dad's fairly well cut finger :)

And then it was time to get ready for Xmas Eve, which my dad gets ready for one day early due to the amount of cooking involved:

My brother and fmaily joined us for Xmas eve, they were amused by my fucking dog charger :)

The next morning we had more food for Xmas, along with more guests:

We had fun with a complex wooden puzzle:

I got stuck here, wasn't able to solve this puzzle

we had fun with another game, french cards against humanity

A few days later, my brother invited us for dinner:

After that my Anna arrived to visit Paris a few days:

This brings us to New Years Eve Dinner at Villa93, quite yummy:

Then afer a few days visiting Paris, it was time to go home:

We had a nice last dinner:

the queen won :)

A bit of shopping to get chocolate and yummy blood orange juice:

I emptied the store and took them all :)

And spent a bit of time with my dad the last evening:

Nice to see my friend Kepik open

some pretty dope visuals

Jason Ross was last, and did a great job

It was definitely an interesting mix of dubstep and other things. Different and yet enenjoyable.

Video Summary:

On the first day, I did a couple of dives with Big Island Divers in the afternoon/evening to see the Manta Rays. The Manta Ray Night Dive is spectacular as always:

Short Video:

Long Video:

Water hovered between 27C and 25C even at night, which was borderline cold for my 3mm wetsuit, but thankfully I didn't get cold (I added a hood when not moving much).

The next days, I did 2 more dives with Big Island Divers in the morning:

Kona Shore Divers was super nice to take me last minute for 2 more dives in the afternoon just before the Luau I had that night:

The 3rd morning, for my last hours in Kona before driving to Hilo, 2 more dives with Big Island Divers:

Thank you to

I had to look up my last flight, it was in 2009: Flight Around Hawaii's Big Island

Here is the flight this time:

Anyway, I'm glad there was a single flight club left on the island with a single plane left able to take 3 people (C182):

I had to wait a bit before takeoff:

Kona is the main airport on the big island

finally taking off

Kona has boats, snorkling and diving

The full tour of the island takes time, even in a C182, it was 2.8H total. It was nice to see the stark contrast between the different sides of the island:

my trusty copilot/CFI, who thankfully did all the radio and airspace work

even the kona side had older lava flows

beautiful waters too

more lava flow

stark altitude contrast

south tip of the island

After a while, we finally arrived to volcano national park:

crater road used to go around, but the volcano grew and took the road away

Jagger Museum is now closed because it's now on the edge of the crater and was damaged by earthquake

After a few loops, down chasins of crater road:

cool road to nowhere (after lava flow)

After that, got to Hilo and did the rest of the island loop:

lots of bridges

many waterfalls

Waipo valley

And finally back to Kona airport after 2.8h, also clearly built on top of a lava flow:

Not cheap, but it was fun to do this flight again after 13 years ;)

Day1

Next to the airport was a commercial seahorse farm. They had a very overpriced tour, but you got to hold a seahorse at the end :) No, the price is not really worth the tour, but I didn't have enough time to research it to that level of detail, oh well. It was still fun:

algea they are growing

sea horses they are growing

we were able to put our hands in a tank and have a seahorse attach to us

Nextdoor was a Salt Farm, also worth a visit:

nice selection of salts

The rest of the day was spent doing an afternoon and manta ray night dive, and a chill dinner:

sorting pictures :)

Day2

Day3

`

Going at altitude just 2h afer my last dive was potentialy tricky, but thankfully one of my 3 dive computers was able to give me the maximum altitude that was safe to ascend to, and it was high enough to where I was going:

by then I could already go to 10,000ft

Across the road to the observatory, there was a short altitude hike with view:

Unfortunately, the lava flow towards Saddle road had already stopped fee days prior, and the road to Mauna Kea was closed due to snow, so we didn't get to go to the peak, either:

visitor center at 9000ft was open, though

After that, the road was drenched in rain, so there was no point in stopping until just before Hilo. Kaumana Caves was a nice stop on the way, a real lava tube that you can explore for a really long distance:

one direction had a hole and exit, but kept going on for a long way

The other direction in the lava tube was inteesting too, including a tube that splits in two:

Day4

After that, quick stop by Hilo farmer's market:

From Hilo, it was an easy drive to Volcano NP:

`

From the research and prior experience, I knew it was best to start with Kilauea Iki Trail, a beautiful hike in a crater that isn't 100 years old yet:

I love how this spot has layers you can simply take apart with one hand

When getting out Thurston Lava Tube is right there, but it's very underwhelming compared to the previous day's hike in Kaumana Caves:

my flashlights still came in handy

When it came time for the Steam Vents and the nice Sulphur Banks hike, pouring rain came down, that got all the way inside my socks and shoes since I only had my emergency umbrella and not a bigger one:

By the end, the Volcano Art Center Gallery was a good stop from the rain, which didn't stop:

I wish I could have seen that

I did a couple of other quick hikes, but it was not fun with the rain, but the good news was that the weather got better at the end of chains of craters road, but the ocean:

just in time for sunset

Day5

My plan was then to drive up around the coast back to Hilo, and stopped at Hawai'i Tropical Bioreserve & Garden which I independently re-discovered was the best botanical garden on the island (realized later it was the same one I went to in 2009, but no biggie, it was definitely worth going back to):

From there, finishing the island tour was technically possible, but not very safe time-wise, and there would not have been time to stop for anything, so it was safer to retreat and go back to Hilo through saddle road and make the flight with a good 15mn to spare :)

Quick stop to check out Kaulana Manu trail for birding another time:

Back to Kona, with airport in the background:

4.5 days might have been barely enough for the big island without diving, but with diving, the time was a bit short. Still, I feel like the itinerary worked out pretty well, considering.

Drove up early on a friday morning and the snow line was quite low but thankfully the road was clear until higher altitudes, so the drive was pretty quick, except for requiring a 10mn charging stop for safety (temps + headlights + snow rolling resistance made it unsafe to drive in one shot without stopping):

Carson Spur looked good

Big downside was that kirkwood only has 2 chargers left

It was early season, but when going in the right places. Friday was a bluebird with 19"

Chamoix was still very new

Drain was still low too

Day 2 had more freshies:

Palisades was kind of closed

but looked very nice :)

Later in the day, I found Johannes:

terrain towards the wall never opened all 4 days, neither did the wall

Despite the great snow, coverage was still limited, and I ended up getting a core shot somewhere during that day:

thankfully I had Ptext to fix it :)

Dau3, Sunday, got more fresh snow, kirkwood only opened 6 around 9:30, but I guess it wasn't too late:

a bit of a wait

got cold to wait like this

people were eager :)

when I finally got up, it was very good :)

Day4, Monday, we ended up only getting 1" overnight and 5" in 24h (mostly the previous day), but things were still great. Unfortunately not a lot of terrain opened and the Wall never opened.

the guys who waited 2H for first chair didn't get a lot

coverage wasn't perfect everywhere, but still very good for early december

Around 14:00, I had had enough fun and given the limited terrain opened, I called it a day and drove home, tired and happy :)